After almost five months without any confluence visit, I headed to second try of 22S44W one, located near Tabuão village. In previous try, occurred in last June, I hadn’t had enough time, due to a previous successful visit in same day, the 22S43W one.

In current try, I left Lavras city early in the morning. This city, where my parents live, lies 227 km to the confluence. Then, I had enough time to go and come back in the same day, and to complete the travel before sunset. The biggest advantage of this try, however, is another one: in current time, there are high-resolution satellite photos of confluence region in Google Earth.

Some months ago, in my no-confluence-visits period, a huge photos improvement occurred in Google Earth. Now, almost all Minas Gerais state is detailed mapped. All my visited confluences, and all my tries that was very hard due to lack of high-resolution photos, are now detailed mapped. Among these confluences, is 22S44W.

Some kilometers after Bom Jardim de Minas city, in BR-267 highway, there is a right turn in dirt road, and a sign indicating Tabuão village 7 km ahead. We caught this road and headed until Tabuão. The region is extremely mountainous, due to it is located inside Serra da Mantiqueira (chain of mountains among Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states). The road has a lot of hills, and was in good conditions, although a lot of rain occurred in previous days.

Tabuão village is covered by mountains in all its sides. After crossing the village, we headed in front, in dirt road, by about 5 kilometers, until a farm located 370 meters close to the exact point. We left the car in front of the farm’s gate and continued on foot. We chatted with farm’s owner, asked permission to get in the farm and then we started searching the best option to go up to the exact point.

Although we were only less than 300 meters close to the confluence, it was in the direction of a very high up hill, and there were a dense bush across the path. After analyzing some options, we decided to make a detour by one of the sides of the mountain. After a hard hiking, we arrived in the peak, which lies 41 meters close to the exact point. Then, we stopped, due to we were already inside 100 meters limit, and the remaining distance was a steep downhill.

After visiting the point, we went back to Lavras city and arrived before sunset. We used two different ways when going and coming back. In order to go, we passed by Três Corações, Cambuquira and Caxambu cities. In this leg, the total distance was 288 kilometers. In order by come back, we passed by Arantina, Andrelândia, São Vicente de Minas, Madre de Deus de Minas and Itutinga cities, and the total distance was 227 kilometers. In both legs, all paved roads are in good conditions. The BR-265 Lavras – Barbacena highway, specifically, had been in very bad conditions some months ago, but it was fixed and it is very good by now.

With this visit, I have just completed all nine confluences located in Minas Gerais state, and located southern of its capital, Belo Horizonte.